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Biggles on Mystery Island/plot
Chapter 1: Objective Pacific A number of people have been reported heading for the remote South Seas island of Oratovoa, including a Dutch family on board a yacht, the Dryad. Another party of Swedes had also gone missing after responding to a newspaper advertisement calling for settlers on a South Sea island. Routine inspection by naval vessels had reported no inhabitants at Oratovoa. The matter would have stopped here but then Biggles mentioned that hydrogen bomb tests were about to be conducted at Christmas Island and the fallout might affect whoever might be on the island. Ever one to talk his way into trouble, Biggles is then given the job of investigating this "mystery island". The Air Police crew proceed into the Pacific in a Sunderland flying boat accompanied by Marcel Brissac and a Swedish police officer named Sven Heldersen. Chapter 2: Mystery Island Shows Its Face The Sunderland arrives at the island and puts down in an inlet. There's no sign of life but Ginger discovers the Dutch yacht Dryad moored behind a headland. It looks abandoned and looted. Its logbook cannot be found. The Sunderland takes off and climbs high for everyone to look at the island from topsides. This time they get a shock. The central peak of the island has a crater at the top. In it they see buildings, cultivated fields, and people! Chapter 3: The Jungle Path Back on the inlet, our friends explore the shoreline for a way up the mountain. They find a jungle track. There's the body of a dead Marquesan native on the ground. He looks like he had been killed by an attack from a wild beast. This match reports from the French authorities that a party of Marquesans had put ashore on the island for supplies and had been driven off by a pack of wild dogs. Chapter 4: Repulsed Our friends hear a loud growl and a large fierce dog appears on the track and suddenly lunges at Biggles. Biggles beats it off with a swipe of his arm and then shoots it with his pistol. More dogs appear in front and even behind them. Biggles and co. have to beat a fighting retreat back to the beach. By the time they get there, they are almost out of ammunition but manage to get safely back to the aircraft. Judging by the breeds and size of the dogs, it appears to Biggles that they had been brought to the island deliberately. As if to confirm this, they hear a shrill whistle and the pack of dogs on the beach, now some forty in size, retreats up the path. Chapter 5: Biggles Decides Biggles decides they must at least try to get to the village in the crater to find out what's going on. For safety, they taxi the Sunderland and moor it to the far side of the inlet. From there, it appears possible to climb up through the jungle to the top of the mountain, even though it means a long dogleg around the inlet. Chapter 6: The Long Climb The next morning, leaving Algy and Bertie to look after the aircraft, the rest set off on the ardious climb. This chapter is replete with passages in Johns' best prose describing the difficult terrain they encounter. At length, near the top of the summit, they meet a man who had been fetching plantains. He's Axel Pruntz, a Swede. He tells them he is a prisoner like many of the others and their colony is ruled by one "King" Hara. Chapter 7: Axel Tells His Tale Axel relates how he had answered a newspaper advert asking for volunteers to start a new colony in the South Seas. He and his friend Martin Larsson had each put down 500 pounds for the scheme. With other colonists from various countries, they had set sail on a yacht, the Liberta. Once away from their last port of call, the crew and its captain, Ronbach, began to treat the colonists harshly and upon reaching Orotovia, they were made to march up to the crater and greeted by King Hara. From then on, life was virtual slavery as they had to perform menial work, building houses and tending crops, all the while watched by guards armed with guns and whips. Anyone who attempted to escape would be shot and, in any case, the pack of dogs was there to prevent the colonists fleeing down the jungle track. Axel's friend Martin had escape some time ago and had not been seen since. The Liberta had been wrecked in a storm. The Dutch yacht Dryad called at the island later and Hara had hijacked the boat as a replacement. The crew were still there among the colonists. According to Axel, Hara's scheme had been going on for some 6 or 7 years. The colony comprised volunteers from many different countries, Europeans as well as Asians. Hara appeared to be some kind of mad doctor who went around with a crown on his head and dressed in Roman robes. He was thought to be a medical doctor who wanted to use the colony for an experiment to create a super race by combining the best qualities of each racial group Further conversation is interuppted when Marcel hears someone approaching. Chapter 8: The First Clash It's Swenson, one to Hara's cronies who takes charge of the guards. He confronts the group and asks Axel to come with him. Biggles tells Axel to remain with them and tells Swenson to go back to Hara and tell him the game is up. Swenson, who is holding a rifle, walks away and suddenly spins around and fires a shot. Biggles had anticipated this and sidesteps, replying with his pistol. Swenson is hit and falls backwards into a deep ravine. Biggles decides to go on into the crater with Marcel to confront Hara. Axel will get back to the aircraft to brief Algy and Bertie while Ginger and Axel will remain near their present location, out of sight, to watch for Biggles' return. Chapter 9: "King" Hara Biggles and Marcel meet some of Hara's guards who take them to see their "king". Biggles offers reasonable terms--call off the dogs and the danger they pose to visitors and allow those colonists who wanted to leave to do so. After this, the British government might consider allowing Hara and his followers to remain in peace if they wished. Hara now shows himself to be mentally unbalanced. He curses the various governments of the world and orders his guards to arrest Biggles and Marcel. Locked into a cell, Biggles tells Marcel that, more than Hara, he is more worried about the island--extinct volcanoes had been known to explode and he has been feeling tremors. Chapter 10: Up to Ginger Left on watch, Ginger and Axel move to a vantage point where they can see the Sunderland. There's Algy and Bertie but no sign of Sven. The next morning Sven returns with bad news. In getting back to the aircraft they would have to cross a ravine spanned by a narrow rock bridge. This bridge had now collapsed in one of the tremors, now getting more frequent. Sven had tried to find another way across the ravine but had failed and had come back. For Ginger, this settles what must be done. Biggles and Marcel are overdue and are likely to be prisoners of Hara. The others could get back to Algy but this is now impossible. They would now wait until night fall, advanced into the colony to find out what has happened and attempt a rescue. Chapter 11: Brisk Work by Night In the darkness, Ginger, Axel and Sven enter the colony unseen. There's a guard by the prison hut where Biggles and Marcel are being kept. Ginger steals forward and knocks him out with a cudgel. Then, using crowbars from the nearby tool shed, they cut a hole through the wall, an easy task as it was made from sun dried powdered soft volcanic rock. Chapter 12: Biggles Gets Busy Biggles sums up the complicated situation. There's a large number of colonists to take care of. They all came from different countries, as did the guards and Hara's cronies. Leaving the political ramifications aside, there's also the problem of getting through the dogs on the jungle track. Biggles works out a plan. Marcel, Axel and Sven go to the dormitory to release the prisoners and gather them near the head of the jungle track. Meanwhile, Biggles and Ginger move quietly to the barracks block where they succeed in locking all the sleeping guards in. Advancing next to Hara's "palace", they manage to surprise and disarm the lone guard, who tells them that he is sick of the place and would like to go with them. Going into the building, Biggles first finds Ronbach in his bed. Like the crook he is, Ronbach offers to split Hara's money with Biggles and both leave together. Disgusted, Biggles takes his gun and locks him in. Next with Hara, Biggles tells him of Ronbach's treachery. He gives Hara an ultimatum. The volcano under the island appears ready to explode. He is leaving with anyone who wants to go and invites him to come along. Hara refuses so Biggles now locks him in as well. Chapter 13: Back to the Sea Everyone is organised to move down the track in a column three abreast with the women in the middle. Armed men would be stationed in front and at the rear as well as each side. Those without guns would carry cudgels or stones. The journey down is harrowing but done without serious incident. Near the beach, they hear the sound of the Sunderland engines starting up. Ginger looks from a tree. The plane is gone. Algy had been told to wait four days. What made him move early? Chapter 14: Problems for Algy The story rewinds to Algy and Bertie waiting in the Sunderland. Algy is getting worried. Constant tremors are stirring up the water and causing crags of rocks to break off the cliffs and plunge down. One day passes and then the next and still no sign of Biggles. At dawn the third day, they hear the dogs converging on the beach pursuing a fair-haired man. He jumps into the sea, swimming towards the plane. Algy starts up and taxis over for Bertie to pull him in. He's Martin Larsson. He tells them he had escaped from King Hara's colony and had survived in the jungle for some weeks. Seeing the plane arrived, he had tried to approach it but had been spotted by the dogs. The water is getting choppier from the earthquakes. Algy faces and dilemma but finally decides he needs to take off before his aircraft is damaged. He starts up and swings the aircraft to line up with the length of the inlet. Chapter 15: Oratovoa Has the Last Say Down at the beach, Biggles can hear the Sunderland but cannot see it. The volcano is clearly going to erupt. He asks the Dryad crew to bring the yacht nearer and then gets most of the colonists to pile on board. About 10 people are left. The Sunderland appears as it gets ready to take off. Algy spots them and swings towards the beach. With the help of a line from Bertie, all the remaining people are helped on board and the aircraft takes off just in time amidst volcanic cinders raining from the sky. Just at this time, they see some people running down to the beach and fighting--that would be Hara and his men. Chapter 14: Aftermath The colonists all reach Atuona and are taken care of. Biggles reports to Raymond when they reach Fiji and are told to wait there for instructions. A week later he is told to return to Oratovoa and report on the situation. The eruption on the island had subsided. On the beach they find a few dead bodies and a large chest--the money Hara had taken from the colonists. Category:Plot summaries